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Help!!! $740 on groceries - Page 2  

post #21 of 34
Do you have a Gross-Out (Grocery Outlet) where you live? I've been finding lots of organic and tasty stuff there - some delicious goat cheese for $1.00, a pound of gorgonzola for $2.00, Annie's Cinna-Bunnies for $1.00/box.
post #22 of 34
Quote:
I think you would save quite a bit of money if you didn't buy off season, imported fruit. That is almost $70. And how are you paying $6 and $9 for lettuce??
I agree! We have been enjoying a neat cookbook called Simply In Season that separates the recipes by what's available in season. Very cool.

Also, Whole Foods is incredibly expensive. Have you checked if there is a food co-op in your area? Also, I know this sounds strange, but for convenience foods, I have run into lots of organic stuff at Big Lots, of all places, things like fruit snacks, cereals, juices, spaghetti sauce. All at a fraction of what WF would price them at.
post #23 of 34
Do you have a HEB/Central Market or Costco near you? I live in Houston and I find that those give me the best prices for organic food consistently. Also, look into a CSA. If you eat the vegetables they provide, it can turn out to be a pretty good deal.

I would also drop the soda and vitamin water.
post #24 of 34
Thread Starter 
Thank you ladies for all of your input...

my biggest problem is that we live a crazy busy lifestyle with all of us out of the house from 6:30-5:30 mon.-fri. Not that it's a great excuse, but cooking is quick and any big cooking only gets done on the weekend. I hate my job, but that's another post...hopefully sometime in the future, I am able to switch.

I need to make more of our favorite conveinience foods...thats a for sure

I need to check online to find our natural hair and body care. I like the idea of using bar soap in the water for the kids and just the wash for their hair...we use avalon

I was wondering about the lotion...if I am already using an organic lotion...I don't see why I couldn't use it on the boys...it's a big jug (13.99) whereas the kids lotion is small and was 9.99

Yes...this will be the last week of grapes and strawberries for awhile! That's just crazy and I can buy frozen

I do use Costco...that's where my butter, snacks, and cereal are from along with cheese

I am scared to buy my baking supplies there as I just don't think I would go through them before they spoiled.

Keep the advice coming...I truly appreciate all of your wisdom mamas and I am sure other lurkers do as well!:::
post #25 of 34
Quote:
Originally Posted by holidaymama View Post
I am scared to buy my baking supplies there as I just don't think I would go through them before they spoiled.
Specifically which baking supplies are you concerned about? Sugar lasts forever if kept in a dry place that bugs can't get in, baking soda can be used for cleaning even if it's no longer "good" for baking (which takes a while). You can even make your own baking powder out of baking soda (cream of tartar and corn/potato starch), so less worry about that going bad if you make it in small batches. That only really leaves yeast and flour, I think... yeast should be kept in the fridge at all times, but will last years in there. Which leaves flour, and it kind of depends on your situation... but, if you're baking 1-2 loaves of bread every week, you'll go through flour pretty quickly. Stick it in the freezer for a couple days when you first get home, then put it in an airtight container, and it will keep a while (white flour). For whole wheat, store it in the freezer if you have the space, or else that definitely needs to be purchased in smaller quantities.
post #26 of 34
Have you considered a garden? That would cut down on your lettuce and strawberry bill.
post #27 of 34
I second (third, fourth) the advice to stick with in season fruit. From fall until spring my family eats pears, apples, more pears, more apples.. lol We buy local and can get a bushel of fuji apples (our favorite) for $12. In stores they are about $2/lb, which is maybe 2 or 3 of them. We got 59lbs of potatoes for $15, in the store I just saw 10lbs for $6! There's still plenty of local greens available here (PA), along with squashes, beets, tomatoes, plums, nuts...

Also, figure out which organic cleaners you can replace with vinegar, baking soda, salt... we use these things almost exclusively. How about homemade laundry soap? It's much cheaper, works well, and takes a short time to make.

Could you spend a couple hours on the weekends making big meals for the week ahead, and cut down on convenience foods? Yesterday I made pumpkin bread, curried apple and squash soup, salsa bread, cookies, a loaf of sandwich bread in the bread machine, 2 pans of cabbage rolls, waldorf salad, a pot of pasta sauce and a jug of iced tea. Those things will serve as lunches and quick dinners until Friday, at least.

Breakfast for dinner is a quick and easy meal. Pancakes and eggs, basically, with some fruit on the side. And there's always pasta with sauce.

Do you have a Big Lots? They often have cheap organic convenience foods, like organic cereal or annie's mac and cheese. We check often and stock up when we see stuff.
post #28 of 34
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jilian View Post
Vitamin water, cocolate syrup, coffee and maple syrup also look like they are costing you a fortune. Maybe go with non-organic options? regular syrup costs $2 or so here in FL.
You can get REAL maple syrup for $2 in FL???? I live in a Maple Syrup producing state and you can't get more than like a TINY amount for $2. Or do you mean Mrs. Butterworths or some such maple flavored HFCS syrup?


OP... you really ought to consider cutting out the vitamin water. It's expensive and it's chock full of HFCS. Not real healthy at all. Surely there are better options.
post #29 of 34
a better, healthier and cheaper option to vitamin water is Emergen-C packets, they make some with multivitamins compounds and electrolytes and trader joes sells a whole box for about 9$.

also real maple syrup is expensive no matter what. i but locally made in MN maple syrup and even in bulk it is 7$ a lb. but this is a lot cheaper then if it is prepackaged, i save half the cost by bringing my own container. this is when food co-ops really serve their purpose to save money and provide healthier food options; the bulk section.
post #30 of 34
Check out vitacost.com.
I get sooo much stuff there, usually 50% off or more what you pay at a hfs!!!
Just type in the search box the things you get at the hfs and see if they have it. I get all kinds of things there. Vitamins, dr bronners soap, desert essence organic shampoo/conditioner, herbs for kids, so..so much!
post #31 of 34
Cut out prepackaged foods as much as possible, and Vitamin water, which is basically water, sugar, and vitamins.
post #32 of 34
Well first, the Sigg and reusable shopping bags are a one-time deal, right? Or are you planning of buying more in the future?

How long will your soaps/detergents last? Because that amount of soap you have listed above (like 8oz packages or larger) would easily last me and my family a few months. Well, until my 5yo started having his own little tube of "chapstick" which takes him about 2 months to decimate.

The handsoap... again, it takes us at least a month or two or three to go through each 7.5oz container of handsoap, then I have a giant tub under one of the sinks to refill the containers as they get low. Or the bars of soap we have in the shower are wahm-made, and I get two whole batches at a time (12-13 bars each batch) that last our family of 5 with semi-frequent houseguests a while. Last time I ordered some was... in May. And I think I've still got 12ish bars left.

The one that floored me on your list was grapes. Depending on where you live, they may be in season, but for $15 I sure hope you got something like 8-12lbs of grapes. Right now is root veggie time unless you live in CA or possibly even Chile (here we were getting tasty Chilean grapes back in spring). I've gotten more into the groove of trying to buy things in season. Like strawberries in June, peaches and cherries in July, apples in September/October, pears in October, asparagus in May/June, etc. Plus things taste a lot better in season as well. So, here, it's potatoes, carrots, winter squash, onions, and so on. Of course I've gone rabid with stocking up on certain items to last us the year (oh, like the 8-10 batches of strawberry jam I made from fresh-picked-by-me strawberries at 3 weeks post-partum), but I do have a fun-sized pantry to go wild with and I'm a sahm so the kids get to help de-stem grapes to make grape juice and crank the Squeezo and such. I seriously doubt I'd be able to do this much if I had a job outside the home.

Baking supplies... even if you don't do any canning but do cookies and baking like muffins and pancakes or biscuits or cakes and frosting from scratch, you could easily go through a 50lb bag of flour and 25lb bag of sugar in a year. Took me 3-4 months to use a 25lb bag of sugar between all the homemade goodies and canning the last little while here. I think a bigger problem would be how/where to store amounts like that - depending on the size of your house.

One note about the Organic Valley coupons - you can only print maybe 2-3 of them from a single computer using a single email address. We've gotten around that because hubby's the tech guy at his work, so every once in a while when he's there late at night fixing stuff he'll print out a few coupons on a coworker's computer. But they do have a limit.
post #33 of 34
Quote:
Originally Posted by Natsuki View Post
Have you looked on www.drugstore.com for the natural brands that you use? They often have great sales and free shipping (never ever pay shipping from there - there are always offers and coupon codes for getting it free).
I will say that drugstore.com is great, but be cautious of the free shipping. It used to be awesome, but lately it's been taking up to 8 weeks for me to get my free shipping stuff. So, if you're not in a time crunch, go for it, but otherwise, it might not be worth it. They ship parcel post if you earn their free shipping.
post #34 of 34
I'd strongly recommend sitting down and reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle to get you on board with the whole seasonal eating thing- and leave it lying around the house so others can read it too. The grapes and strawberries made me cringe. If you lose the out-of-season stuff, you're saving $50 a month, more or less.
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Mothering › Forums › Natural Family Living › The Mindful Home › Frugality & Finances › Help!!! $740 on groceries